THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



OUR NEW VOLUME. 



With the completion of the fiftieth vokime of The Canadian Entomologist, 

 a convenient opportunity arises for the introduction of any new features or 

 changes that may seem desirable. 



For fifty years the size of our page has never varied, a fact which says much 

 for its suitability; but the time has now come when a larger page presents certain 

 advantages, particularly with regard to illustrations. It was accordingly 

 decided at the recent Annual Meeting of our Society to adopt the present size, 

 which is uniform with that of our Annual Report and the Ontario Government 

 bulletins, and is more suitable .for full-page illustrations, besides permitting a 

 freer interchange of these with other publications. 



This will bring about a considerable reduction in the number of pages, but 

 there will be no material change in the quantity of matter in the text. 



The June and Jul}' numbers will be issued together and likewise the August 

 and September numbers, so that there will be only ten issues, instead of twelve, 

 two of these being of double size. 



POPULAR AND PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Apple Maggot in British Columbia.* 



by w. downes, entomological branch, dominion dept. agriculture. 



In August, 1917, while collecting insects at Royal Oak, about four miles 

 north of Victoria, B.C., the writer took two specimens of a Trypetid closely 

 resembling the Apple Maggot fly. These were submitted for identification to 

 Dr. J. M. Aldrich, who found them identical with Rhagoletis pomonella. Pre- 

 vious to this there have been only two authentic records of its capture on the 

 Pacific slope. In 1894, five specimens were taken by Mr. O. T. Baron in the 

 southern part of California and were described by Snow (1) as Rhagoletis 

 zephyria, n. sp. Later this was shown by R. W. Doane (2) and J. M. Aldrich 



(3) to be a synonym of R. pojnonella. No further mention of the existence of 

 this species on the Pacific Slope appears to have been made until 1916, when two 

 specimens of the fly were taken on July 26th of that year by Mr. R. C. Treherne 



(4) at Penticton, B.C. 



There is one other record of the fly on the West Coast, but this does not 

 appear to be quite authentic. In 1911, A. L. Melander (5) reported R. pomo- 

 nella as "destructive along the eastern border of the State," but adds that there 

 is no positive evidence of its occurrence in Washington. It is probable in this 

 case that it has been confused with some other insect and, as will be shown later, 

 notwithstanding its occurrence and comparative abundance, the probabilities 

 are against its being a pest of the apple. 



The identity of the species being established, a search was at once made 



for the host plant. This was found without difficulty. Larvae resembling the 



species in question were found infesting the snowberry {Symphoricarpus race- 



mosiis Michx) and 50 pupcX were obtained and kept over the winter. In the 



spring of 1918, 42 of these were recovered and on August 19th five flies emerged, 



which were submitted to Dr. Aldrich and were found by him to be identical in 



all respects with those taken the previous year. It was found that owing to a 



*Contributions from the Entomological Branch, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. 

 January, 1919 



